65 Percent Water
by Cochrane
Summary: Gray is missing. Juvia is not at all happy with the situation.
1. Chapter 1

Nicola had run, faster than he had ever run. He had made jumps that seemed impossible, taken shortcuts that weren't actually there, and at one time it seemed as if he had passed through a solid stone wall. He wasn't sure anymore. It was all a blur. But now he had run enough. He was saved, for there was no way she could have followed him here.

Slowly, like an old man with brittle bones, he sat down on the ground, and began to laugh. And laugh. He laughed for five minutes when he noticed something strange. A drop had landed on his hand. Then another, on his face. One more, in his hair. His laughter died as he realized that it had started to rain.

Through the mist, he saw a figure walking towards him. A woman with an umbrella. She wasn't in a hurry. She didn't seem capable of being in a hurry. And yet, he knew for a fact that she had been three cities away just an hour before. As she came closer, he heard her speak, a mantra or a prayer. It sounded innocent. It was the worst sound he could imagine.

"Drip, Drip, Drop."

He evaluated his options. He could run, of course. But running had brought him here. He could surrender. That would mean betraying his friends, and he wasn't sure that it would save him either. So fight it was. He began to shout

"Spider Attack!"

An arachnid appeared with a reassuring roar. Four meters long, a ton in weight, and, according to his old teacher, the power of more than a hundred horses, all at his fingertips. He pointed at his foe, and the spider started running. The lady did not seem to care.

"A spider? Juvia knows about them. If there is a spider in your shower, you just flush it away. Drip, drip, drop"

If she shouted her attack, he didn't hear it. All he saw was the giant wave of water that rushed towards the animal and swept it away as if it was made of foam. Part of him wondered why she would feel the need to take a shower, but he couldn't let that cloud his mind now. He had to think of something else.

"Double Lightning!"

The sparks shot from his hand into the woman… and connected with each other. He felt a surge of pain as the current through his body increased. It was almost too much to bear, but he was able to end it. Juvia did not seem to care. Her voice remained flat, even slightly amused, as she spoke.

"Water conducts electricity. You're shorting out. Juvia would not do that. Drip, drip, drop."

Desperation was starting to creep up on him. He shouted "Flying saucer", but the disc just sped through her body as if she wasn't even there.

"You tried that before, Nicola-san, remember? Juvia cannot be harmed that way. Just like the bats. Nicola-san knows what Juvia wants. You might want to give it to her."

He took the shield from his back and raised it in front of him. It was purely decorative, a design element in his guild armor, but it was better than nothing. Possibly.

"I am a knight of the Cross and the Snake! We may not be a legal guild, but that does not mean we abandon and betray our friends! I will fight to the end!"

"As you wish." Juvia just kept walking towards him, making no offensive gesture. Suddenly, he got cold, and he noticed that his skin became wetter. He also felt his strength leaving him.

"What are you doing?"

"You are sweating, Nicola-san. Juvia has just accelerated it. Did you know the human body is mostly water? And do you know what happens if all of that water moves at the same time?"

He felt as if something was hitting him from behind, but there was nothing. The force did not register on his skin; his entire being was pulled down. The woman remained calm and came to a stop next to him.

"Juvia has never hurt anyone just to hurt them. She has never killed anyone. Juvia did not think she ever could. Do you understand Juvia?"

He collapsed on the ground, pulled by his organs that were completely ignoring his muscles.

"But there were times when Juvia has had thoughts, dark thoughts, and dark ideas. She never thought she would do them. She would not want to do them. But you and your guild have brought Juvia closer than she likes, and closer than you will like, Nicola-san. Drip, drip, drop."

Nicola looked up. "What do you mean?"

He wasn't sure, but it seemed as if the faintest hint of a grim smile appeared on Juvia's face.

"At least half of blood is water. That's what makes it flow. Drip, drip, drop."

Panic was starting to take hold of him. He nodded.

"Excellent. Then now you will tell Juvia where she can find Gray-san."

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: Why is this happening and what will happen next? I don't have the slightest idea, so I'd be happy to hear your suggestions. I'd also be happy about reviews in general!<em>


	2. Chapter 2

Next to posters, event reports, political news and lots of very questionable ads, the "Weekly Sorcerer" also featured a section called "Open Questions". In it, all wizards were invited to propose answers to such eternal questions as "what type of magic is best suited to stop a volcano?", "how do you defeat a stellar wizard if you are both locked in a book store?", "is there an efficient spell to find the best route for a traveling wizard with a given number of jobs to get to?" and similar.

Among them, "how do you lock up an ice wizard?" was quite popular, and for Gray, it was a point of pride that he always found some hypothetical way to break out of any of the proposed prisons. No heat, intricate locks, flexible walls, rearranging corridors, deathly traps or similar could ever hold an ice wizard of the highest class, with the highest training and a bit too much time on his hands. Sadly, nobody had ever suggested "strap him to a bed and dose him with drugs until he can't move anymore". It seemed to be working perfectly right now.

He could still turn his head a tiny bit, and breathing wasn't a problem, either. But all the more or less intricate hand movements required to form anything out of ice were completely impossible. Not even the single-handed, highly unstable and tiny Ice Knife that he had learned after reading about one particularly effective prison was possible.

So he was resigned to looking and listening. The room he was in was brightly lit and large. There were other beds with other people around him, but how many, he could not say. Next to all of them, various machinery was placed, showing glowing lights in different colors and going "beep" every few seconds. Through high, arched windows, he could see some sort of forest, or possibly a park. Nobody was moving or talking. Nothing seemed to happen for a long time, so after what felt like an eternity, he fell asleep.

He was awakened by the sound of footsteps. A group of people had entered the room and were methodically moving through the rows of beds. They paused at all of them and muttered a few words, but he couldn't understand them clearly. Maybe this was a side-effect of the drugs.

After a few minutes, they arrived at the bed next to him, and he could finally get a good look. The leader of the group was obvious. He seemed to be at least eighty, with completely white, short hair and old-fashioned glasses. Instead of normal clothes, he was wearing a white lab coat with a tie underneath. Various pens, rulers and a syringe were visible in the front pocket. He looked at the woman lying next to Gray for a while, then at some of the various equipment around them.

"Miss Medina. This specimen seems to have died. Why wasn't I informed earlier?"

"I'm... I'm sorry, Professor Von Harzburg! This must have been recently. We've been having trouble with the alerting system on this floor." answered one of his underlings, a woman about the same age as Gray. The other underling, a man about the same age, nodded as if his life depended on it. Miss Medina continued.

"We did tell you that more personnel was necessary for uninterrupted monitoring, sir."

The professor seemed to get angry for a second, but caught himself. "Yes, I suppose you did. But you do realize the dangers, of course? The more people know..."

"Of course, sir! We understand completely!"

"Well, it's no use crying over spilt milk. Tell transportation to dispose of the body in the usual way. This one wasn't giving us good data anyway. Now, the next one..."

He moved over to Gray, while the male underlying handed the woman a sheet that she passed on to the professor. She began to explain.

"This one is new, sir, the replacement for specimen 87. Male, seventeen years old, uses ice magic, and according to initial readings, strength seems to be in the top five percent for his class. He was brought in just this morning."

"Ah, that is excellent news! I really need a form magic user for some of the next experiments, and 87 was way too weak anyway."

The professor probed Gray's arms and legs. Gray tried to kick or hit him, but his limbs would not move. Slowly, he opened his mouth and tried to speak.

"What... are... you... do.."

The professor turned to his underlings.

"It speaks? That's annoying. Please adjust the dosage."

"Right away sir!" said the woman. She nodded towards the man, who came over and adjusted something.

"Alright. Let's see, the next one is..." said the professor, as everything around Gray went dark.

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: I think that people in Fiore actually speak english, and the Manga and Anime were just translated to Japanese for the convenience of the readersviewers. Obviously, this does not work if taken literally (there is too much japanese culture seeping through), but I do get the impression that this is what we're supposed to believe. So I made the conscious decision to have the underlings call their master professor and sir, instead of japanese honorific suffixes. What do you think?_


	3. Chapter 3

By now, Lucy was used to seeing her friends going through her stuff without her permission. Mostly, it was Natsu, but really, none of the team had any objections to invading her home. Still, it felt weird for her to be going through Gray's apartment.

"Is this really necessary? Do you really think we'll find any clues here?" she asked the others.

"We will not know until we try" replied Erza as she put Gray's spare key into the lock.

"True, but I think those two might make mischief" said Lucy, pointing at Natsu and Happy.

"Maybe his fridge is full of fish!" shouted Happy.

"I don't know if Gray likes fish…" said Natsu. "He is a weird guy, after all."

"No fish! Nobody could be that mean!"

"Say, why is Lucy here? I thought she wanted to follow that carriage, with that rain girl." said Natsu.

"You just realize that now! I've tried, but Juvia turned into water and just swam away, so I decided to come with you instead. You were there!"

"Really? I can't remember."

"It was ten minutes ago!"

"Please, no arguing." said Erza as she opened the door.

Gray's apartment was as different from Natsu's and Happy's place as it could be. It consisted of one room with a kitchen corner and a bath. All of it was completely clean and surprisingly empty. A few abstract pictures were hanging on the wall. In a corner, Lucy spotted a poster of a motorcycle. Almost all furniture was made out of blank metal, glass or some combination of the two, with some black-painted wood thrown in here and there. One wall was dominated by a music player and a shelf of music lacrimas next to it, all arranged in alphabetical order. It seemed that everything had been placed with great care for maximum effect.

On a closer look, the bed was made and everything in the kitchen was clean, too. It did not seem as if anyone other than Gray and now them had been here. If there was anything here to explain Gray's abduction, it was well hidden. They fanned out to search in detail. Natsu was the first to find something interesting.

"What! He has Gajeel in his music library?" He held up a lacrima case with Gajeel's face and "Shoubidou" written on it. "Oh, this ice guy, when I get him I will…" Flames started to come out of the dragon slayer's hand, but Erza managed to calm him down with just a look.

"I didn't know Gajeel sold them" said Lucy.

"Oh yes, in the gift store" replied Happy. "Max says they are very popular."

"This is nice" said Erza from another corner of the room. She held up a picture of their team together. "Right next to the bed."

"Aww, that's cute" replied Lucy.

"Yes, isn't it? Oh, and here is a picture of you, too. On the beach."

"What! In a swimsuit? Right next to the bed?" screamed Lucy, as Happy started to giggle.

"…and of Juvia too…" continued Erza. Lucy's indignation was replaced by confusion.

"All right… what does that mean?"

"I don't know" replied Erza, "but maybe we shouldn't tell Juvia."

"Good idea" said Lucy. Erza started to investigate the bed corner more closely.

"Did you find anything there?" Lucy asked. Erza inexplicably blushed.

"Well, not directly…"

"Then what are you…" Suddenly, something dawned on Lucy. "Erza, are you upset that there's no swimsuit picture of you there?"

"What! No! No! I just…"

Mercifully, Natsu cut her off.

"Hey, look here! A stuffed white bear!"

"Those are called polar bears!" replied Happy, proud of his vast knowledge of bear names.

"I wouldn't have thought that Gray had stuffed animals" said Lucy.

"It looks really old. And it's got a sign here… 'To my beloved Gray, from Ul'. Ul… that's his teacher, isn't it?"

He took the polar bear and placed it very, very carefully back on the shelf it had come from. He even stroked over it once to straighten the fur. Lucy smiled, but decided against commenting on that.

Then Natsu turned to the wardrobe next to the bed.

"Let's see what this exhibitionist has for..." He was cut off by a flood of plush animals tumbling down on him. It must have been hundreds; Lucy counted at least four giraffes, a giant tiger and a snake longer than she was high. She let out a little squeak.

"Oh, that's adorable!"

"Mmpf mmpff mmmpf!" was Natsu's only reply.

"Are they all from Ul?" asked Happy, critically eyeing a cat that had tumbled in front of his paws.

Erza sat down and investigated a small mammoth. "This one still has a price tag" she said. "And I saw an ad for that one recently, while looking for a gift for Wendy. It must be fairly new. And that… is that a bear wearing armor?"

After one hour of searching, they had not managed to uncover anything relevant. There were magazines about motorcycles, a few bills and some letters from Lyon. The kitchen held nothing of interest, although the oven looked mostly unused. The warm water in the bath wasn't working, just like the heaters, but the landlord had told them that Gray had always refused to pay for either, so he had disconnected them.

Natsu was considering where to best put traps, while Happy was frantically trying to fix a stuffed fish that had looked just a bit too realistic. Erza was looking at the dust layers on different things without finding anything, and Lucy was simply resting on a chair, when Juvia returned.

* * *

><p>"…and after that, he was very cooperative." Juvia finished her description of the fight with Nicola while looking out the window. It had begun to rain when she had entered. Lucy did not believe that this was a coincidence.<p>

"According to him, his guild had a list of targets. They were paid to catch them and deliver them to a warehouse. Juvia has checked the list, and there is no obvious connection between the targets. Old, young, male, female, magic users or not, it seems to make no difference.

"Those guys weren't even trying" said Natsu. "It took an hour to track the carriage they used. Everyone had seen it. Why were they so careless?"

"Apparently Gray was the last on the list. Also, they did not know that Mister Happy was watching them" said Juvia.

"Aye Sir!" shouted Happy.

"Why were you with Gray anyway?" wondered Natsu. "Were you fighting him? Did you win?"

"I promised Gray to not tell you." said Happy solemnly.

"What! Now I really want to know!"

Erza rolled her eyes. "Please continue, Juvia. Did you visit the warehouse yet?"

Juvia nodded. "Yes. The workers there were not willing to help Juvia at first, but she convinced them."

For some reason, the statement sent shivers down Lucy's spine, and she could see that Erza was at least wondering what 'convinced' meant here. But Juvia either did not notice or did not care.

"There must have been an exchange, because every time, shortly after a carriage arrived and left again, another came. The people at the warehouse apparently think it is not wise to pay too close attention, but from the times, it seems that Gray was there, and that he was brought somewhere else shortly after. He was not in any of the crates, and the warehouse has no hidden tunnel or exit.

"How do you know?" asked Natsu, then thought for a moment. "Ah, I got it! After you knew Gray wasn't there, you filled it with water, right?"

Juvia gave a short nod, as if filling warehouses with water to check for secret passages was an every day event for her. "The change in water pressure over time was consistent with the door sizes." she said.

"There was no more information to be had at the warehouse, but Juvia did get the name of the owner. It appears he is involved in a lot of illegal activities, but Juvia has never heard of him before."

She handed Erza a neatly folded note. Erza looked at it blankly, shrugged, and passed it to Natsu. He similarly shook his head (as did Happy), and he gave it to Lucy. She looked at the name, written in an exact cursive – and almost fell from her chair.

"Do you know this guy?" asked Natsu. "And is it bad that we don't?"

Lucy shook her head. "Not many people know him, but he's bad. Really, really bad."

Erza looked up in surprise. "I know basically all dark wizards, but his name does not ring a bell. What guild does he belong to?"

"Oh, he is not a wizard. I guess that would make things too easy for us. But… I think I may have a plan…"

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: If you think this chapter is mostly filler, just meant to show what I think Gray's place would look like and explain very briefly what happened before, then you're absolutely right. But I do have some more action planned for the next chapter. I hope I'll see you there!<em>


	4. Chapter 4

Juvia had thought herself familiar with the concept of a seedy bar. She had read books where they featured, seen movies where the heroes got their drinks there, heard Happy's tales about illegal fish served there (she had her doubts about this one), so she had always thought it was not necessary to actually visit one of these establishments. In a pinch, she thought Fairy Tail's guild hall was a fairly good approximation.

As a result, she was totally shocked when she entered 'Albert's Pub and Bar' together with Lucy. Not because of how seedy it was, but because of how much it wasn't. Everything was lit fairly well; she could see the faces of the people at the table, who were laughing at jokes a bit too naughty for her taste. There were neither any mysterious lone strangers nor any mob bosses with lots of giggling girls around them. Nobody glared at them, and the barkeep actually gave them a friendly smile.

"Juvia is disappointed" she whispered to Lucy. "Even Phantom Lord's guild hall was seedier than this. Are you sure that this is the right place?"

Lucy nodded. "Don't let this fool you. The kind of gangster we need are all nice, honorable and friendly, right until not being that works better for them. They won't rob us here, but we should stay away from dark alleys for a bit after leaving."

Juvia was a bit concerned about the summoner's knowledge of these things, but she tried not to let it show. What if Lucy was the one planning on robbing her later? She wanted to check whether her valuables were still there, but stopped herself when she realized that doing so would only tell everyone else where her valuables were. And what if her behavior was now seen as suspicious?

"Calm down, Juvia. You're giving off puffs of vapor" whispered Lucy. "Now, where is… ah, there!" She steered them to a table where a single woman was sitting, reading a newspaper. Juvia estimated her about forty. Her outfit was not cheap, but not remarkable either, and her glasses had gone out of a style a while ago. A glass of wine was standing next to her.

"Lucy, so good to see you! How's your father doing? Oh, please sit down." she said as they approached. Juvia tried to find a place where she could keep the entrance in view and have nobody approach her from behind, but realized that the woman they were here to meet had already taken this place. Lucy did not seem flustered by such concerns, however.

"Oh, he's doing well. This is Juvia Lockser, a friend of mine. Juvia, meet Madame D'Arcachon."

They shook hands. "Juvia is pleased to meet you."

"Wonderful! Did Lucy tell you about me? Only good things, I hope?"

"That would have been a very short story, and you know it."

"Oh please, Lucy! Is that a way to treat an old friend of your father's?"

„Friend is an interesting choice of words. During my rebellious phase, I did some digging into what my father did. You didn't always appear in a good light there. The incident at Coroia, for example, or that nice business with Hiragoto…"

„Oh, you went behind Jude's back? That explains quite a bit, actually." She chuckled. „But you're not here to ‚bring me to justice' or some nonsense like that? I hate to be blunt, but frankly, if I go down, don't expect me to protect your father. Not when he has no way of paying me back."

„Nothing like that, no. All I need is a favor. You still owe my family one or two, if my information is correct."

Madame D'Arcachon took a sip out of her glass. „Ah, Lucy, there is the bluntness again. Just like your father. I told you, he and I were friends. I see no reason why we can't get along."

„When he thought I couldn't hear, he called you a rat."

"But a friendly rat! Rats can be very useful animals if you treat them with respect." Madame D'Arcachon saw that Juvia was looking more and more uncomfortable. "Oh, don't worry, just a bit of fun between old acquaintances. No, seriously, what did Lucy tell you? I don't like to discuss business in front of people I don't know."

"Lucy did not tell Juvia a lot." This was, technically, not true. Madame D'Arcachon was apparently someone Jude Heartfilia had relied on when dealing with criminals – something that he never liked, but apparently had no big moral issues with. Sabotage, break-ins, paying protection money or beating up criminals to stop them from demanding it, Madame D'Arcachon could provide it. Juvia was not certain whether she should tell any of that, though.

"Don't worry, she knows enough, and I trust her. Now, about that favor…"

„To be honest, I kind of hoped you'd be too proud to ask for it. After all, when your father went bankrupt, he never once asked for my help. And I thought you were too proud to follow in his footsteps as a businessman?"

„Yes, and I'm sorry to bother you like this, but I don't have any other options."

"Are you sure? You are a member of a mages guild, and if I remember correctly, not one of the weak ones."

„And my friends are great when it comes to destroying stuff, but right now, I'd like something a bit more subtle. We have no idea where Gray is being hid, and if we fight De Monza head-on, he may retaliate somewhere else."

"You seem to have inherited your father's talent for strategy, too." She sighed. "Alright. I'll help you, this once, for your father's sake. But favor this or favor that, I can't always work for free. Now, I read your letter, but I'm not sure what it is you actually need."

Juvia could not hold it in much longer. She whispered to Lucy. „Are you sure we can trust this woman? Juvia thinks she may betray us in some way, if there's money in it for her."

Madame D'Arcachon looked up. „No need to whisper, darling, I can hear you just fine. I don't know what they taught you in school about ‚no honor among thieves' or such nonsense, but I have nothing to gain from selling you out. Suppose I did. It would take half a week, and everyone around me would know it. Who wants to do business with someone who sells out her friends?"

„But De Monza has more money than we do…"

„Oh, but will he spend it on some poor girl like me who just happens to run along? De Monza might give me a few jewels, maybe. But I don't want to beg for his table scraps. You can trust me, I give you my word."

Juvia was not at all convinced, but Lucy cut in. „Good enough for me. Now, I don't need anything big. Just a few rumors…"

* * *

><p>After much planning and throwing around of names that Juvia had never heard before, they left the bar. Lucy was smiling happily, as always, but Juvia was doubtful.<p>

„Lucy, Juvia knows how important promises are to a stellar mage. But she does not think that that woman agrees. Is there maybe some magic "

Lucy nodded. „I know that. All she says about honor is just for show. But so is her reluctance. There is bad blood between her and De Monza, that's why I chose her. She'd rather die than help him."

„You chose her? How many criminals does your father know?"

„More than I like." Lucy sighed. „He always considered himself honorable, but I don't think you'd agree with him on that. If one of his enemies fought dirty, then he'd always do the same. A year ago, I did some digging in his files. He writes down everything. What I learned there was a huge part of why I left home."

„And Juvia thought her parents were problematic… What was Juvia doing there, anyway? It seems that you could have handled this on your own. You said you needed Juvia for intimidation, but Juvia is not good at that."

„Are you kidding? With all that ‚drip, drip, drop'? And how you beat up that one guy? You're very, very scary."

„Juvia wishes you to remember that when you start to think about Gray." She paused for a bit. „But Juvia works best in a fight. Just sitting there and making plots and being intimidating is not her strength."

„It's all about appearance here. People know that you were sent to capture me, back then. They also know you were beaten, and now they see us working together. If they were planning to attack, that makes them have doubts. If they did attack, we could absolutely beat them. But then we'd have no plan to get back to Gray."

Juvia nodded. „It did seem to work out."

„Exactly. Now, let's get back to the guild. Erza should have everything prepared by now."

_Author's note: I just realized that I haven't specified when this story is happening. It's right before the "S-Class" arc, because I want a Fairy Tail at full power, and who knows what the hell will happen after the time skip. This whole story does not really need Lucy's father to be alive or dead (he won't appear in person), but I do think it's more interesting if Lucy can't just refer to her father's money in these kinds of dealings._


	5. Chapter 5

They had been in the limousine for more than an hour, all the way to Era, and Erza still found herself touching the wood and the leather seats every now and then. It was unbelievable to her. Some of the most expensive materials that she had ever seen on armor where here, not to protect, but simply to add ambiance. Even some that required magic to assemble where present.

Speaking of magic. Such a vehicle needed a chauffeur, and the chauffeur needed to be a mage. And since the car was extremely heavy, it needed a fairly good level mage. They had decided to not hire one, so now Juvia was doing all the driving. Erza was silently glad that they had not brought Natsu with them. She would not want to pay for the cleaning of all these surfaces.

Lucy did not seem to care for any of that. She seemed more bored than anything. Erza caught her looking at her and smiling.

"You seem very impressed." said the stellar mage.

Erza blushed, but couldn't really hide it. "It is meant to be impressive. Being impressed is an appropriate response. All this…" she waved her hand around them "…and just for one person? I think it's impressive."

Lucy nodded. "You're right. It's just, my father had one of these, and I never liked it. You mustn't eat, you mustn't drink, don't be loud, don't listen to tapes about a talking elephant and his best friend…" She seemed lost in memory for a second. "Anyway, Erza, why does this impress you so? You spend way more on your armor. You can pay for all this easily. In fact, you are paying for this right now, remember? Thanks for that, by the way!"

"I know. But it's all so… wasteful. See here: Carbon fiber. It takes a team of six mages three days to make anything out of it. It's extremely light and extremely strong. And all it does here is cover the ashtray. My armor all serves a purpose, because I need it for my job." She did not like the smile she could see on Lucy's face. "Yes, all of them! …yes, even the ones I rarely wear! Oh, shut up!"

She took a second to compose herself. "Okay, I like to show off, too. But I show off my skill, and the armor is a part of that. This just shows off money."

Lucy nodded, then reclined in her seat. "But I have to admit: It's still kind of nice, isn't it?"

Erza agreed. "Juvia, how is it for you? And are you sure you agree with the plan?" "Juvia does not care about the car. All she cares about is Gray-sama." she replied in her most monotone voice. There were not a lot of things that could shock Erza, but this tone always made her worry a bit. Juvia continued in the same tone. "…although she does notice that these cars are not bought by or for the comfort of their drivers."

They turned around a corner into a slightly less nice part of town. There were a lot of warehouses and some factories. In the middle, someone had built a management building that was overflowing with ornaments, rivalling the palaces in the city center. It was there that Juvia steered them.

Lucy fiddled with her clothes again. "You know, if you're uncomfortable like that, I'm sure I can get you some sort of suit that should fit you fine" said Erza.

"Thank you, but I think this is better." said Lucy. Erza was not entirely convinced of that. While she was dressed in a suit that was not cheap, but not standing out either, Lucy's outfit was weird, to put it mildly. It was based on a standard business outfit, but still included her whip. Her blazer was open so that one could see her belly button. Unlike Erza, who had a briefcase, Lucy had not brought anything else with her. "Yes, it's not exactly formal wear" said the summoner, "but remember who we're dealing with. De Monza likes a arrogance, because it matches his style. We have to look as if we own this place, or at least one just like him."

Lucy thought for a moment, then added "Please don't punch him. No, that's not right. Please punch him only after this mission is through. You're going to want to."

Juvia pulled into the parking space with careless ease, as if driving huge limousines was her hobby. Maybe it was. Erza realized that she did not know a lot about the water mage, other than her infatuation with Gray. Lucy was opening the door as they heard a loud bang.

"Was that a shot?" asked Lucy.

"It was too quiet. Maybe far away, or indoors."

None of the guards on the parking space seemed to care. They were still busy pretending that they didn't care about them. Juvia did not say anything, but Erza could see what appeared to be literal steam coming from her ears. She wondered if she should say anything, but by then a portier arrived to greet them. Lucy and Erza got out of the car and entered the building.

* * *

><p>The doors were large and the atrium was larger. Statues were standing around and pictures were hanging on the wall, all with a blatant disregard for money or taste. All the columns lining the room were covered in brass, polished enough to almost look like gold. Erza realized that she was meant to be impressed, but instead was a bit disgusted. Lucy noticed her behavior.<p>

"Not impressed now? I'm just wondering because you were in the car."

"The car was basically us showing off. I don't like that. But I do know criminals showing off."

Both whispered so that the portier did not hear them. Around them, a few guards were placed. All of them were staring at Lucy, but trying to hide it. As far as Erza could tell, she seemed to enjoy the attention. It was weird, really. Normally, the young mage was always the first to panic in any given situation. But organizing, making a plan or, as now, following it, all really calmed her down. It made a lot of sense that she was a stellar mage, all things considered.

A friendly looking girl at the reception handed both of them badges and ushered them to the elevator and told them to go the top floor.

* * *

><p>The loading bay at the bottom of De Monza's warehouse was mostly disused this time of day. Only the highest value items were ever delivered here to begin with, and right now, there was one empty carriage and maybe half a dozen guards protecting the entrance. It was obvious that they were bored.<p>

The silence of the afternoon was suddenly interrupted with a loud bang and a flushing noise, as a fire hydrant exploded. This was outside the guard's experience or responsability, but on the plus side, it was something happening. They went to check it out, leaving behind Carl to guard door.

Someone like Carl didn't mind. In fact, he was glad they were gone, so he could take another sip from his thermos flask. He always told his colleagues that it was just tea, just like he told himself that he didn't have a problem. Whether either believed him was up for debate. But as he opened the flask, the "Tea" jumped at him. He could barely think "huh?" before he got it hit so hard that he fell down, unconscious.

From behind him, a young woman with blue hair emerged, now completely unseen. Juvia strolled over to Carl and checked his breathing. There did not seem to be a problem, so she quickly took his keys and let herself in through the back door.

* * *

><p>Lucy and Erza left the elevator and entered a huge office. If anything possible, it was even more tasteless. On the walls were pictures, mostly a random but expensive collection. There were also bookshelves with rows of books that had probably never been read. The lone desk was the size of an average river boat. Behind it, in a swivelling chair almost twice his size, sat De Monza.<p>

He seemed about the same age as Lucy, which felt weird. Many of the guards on the way here were older. His outfit was eerily similar to Lucy's: Based on a business suit, but worn way too casually. Erza had to hand it to her friend: She really did know this guy well enough, even if her father and him had always been rivals. However, there was a big difference: Lucy's smile was always warm and welcoming. Da Monza's smile, on the other hand, was outright creepy.

"Lucy Heartfilia! What a pleasure to see you again!" He looked over at Erza. "I'm confused. Should I be offended that you brought a bodyguard, or that you only brought one? Even if it is the mighty Titania."

Erza wanted to answer, but Da Monza just continued. "Anyway, Miss Heartfilia. Have you rethought my marriage offer? I told you, it's still standing."

That was something that Erza had not expected. Lucy, on the other hand, had. "The answer is still ‚no way in hell, creep'. Hope you don't mind."

He laughed. "Oh, Lucy, you hurt me so! But on the other hand, the situation has changed on my end, too. After all, the Heartfilia money and influence is gone, so what good would an alliance do me?" He paused for a moment, then looked directly at Lucy. "Or is it?"

"That's what my tax return says" replied Lucy. She also gave her best impression of an evil grin. "I can positively say that my dad is bankrupt."

De Monza stroked his chin. "Well, there have always been rumors, of course. A falling out between father and daughter. A magical guild war started out of that, lots of bad blood, very poignant. Then the father's money is suddenly gone. A few people are wondering what ‚prodigal daughter' really means. I do know you're not as naïve about your father's business as he always wanted you to be."

"What can I say? I'm naturally curious!"

"And now, word on the street has it that you're looking to invest, all on the hush hush, but big sums. That's interesting. And I've always found you more pleasant than your dad. He was… he always insisted on ‚honor' everywhere, the kind of honor. And in the end, he just kept doing what he wanted to anyway. I never understood that."

Lucy nodded. "Let's just say he didn't have my inheritance's best interests at heart. Someone needed to separate the two, for their own good."

Suddenly, a phone rang out. De Monza excused himself and picked up. "Trouble? What trouble? Calm down, man, I can't understand you!" Erza tensed, and she could see Lucy doing the same thing, too. Juvia had promised to be discreet, but could she be trusted when Gray was on the line? De Monza continued.

"Ten inmates? What the hell are you guys doing all day down there! Yes, yes, whatever, just contain it!"

Now Erza was really uncomfortable. Whatever this was, this didn't sound like part of their plan at all. And if the plan fell apart, they'd have a real problem. De Monza, on the other hand, put the phone down and smiled at them again.

"I'm sorry. You just can't get the help these days. Sometimes I wish I could just kill them, but then the others will be all like ‚oh my god, who will be next?' instead of working. Anyway, we'll fix that soon. Now, before we go any further, I'd like some proof that you actually have the kind of money we're talking about here."

Lucy nodded to Erza, who got a piece of paper out of her briefcase. It had all the necessary bank stamps and logos. Reedus had really outdone himself this time. De Monza studied it and was impressed.

"Not bad. So you funnelled it through the guild? That's some good tactics. You know, I always liked your father's sense for strategy, and you seem to have inherited that."

Erza could tell that Lucy was not happy about the comparison, but he continued.

"Now, you know we have one of your guys, right? One…" he looked at a piece of paper on his desk. "Gray Full… wait, is that his real name? Like, actually?"

"Yes, it is, and that's what got me interested. I don't like you abducting my people." said Lucy, and Erza knew that the outrage wasn't acted. The next part was, though. "But, you're willing to basically attack the Heartfilias outright? Either you have a lot of guts, or there is money to be made here. I know you don't have real guts, and I hear you're looking for investors. So I want in on this."

"Oh Lucy, always with the teasing! There is some debt to be paid first, though. You guys flooded one of my warehouses, remember?"

"The girl who did that has a crush on Gray. Don't worry, she'll be punished. I've got something in mind involving a scredrive crush, or maybe technique 35… Hell, if you want, keep the guy and I'll give you the girl, too."

It felt wrong to hear Lucy say that, no matter how often they had discussed the tactics in the car. Lucy, too, needed a moment pause, but then continued.

"But for anything else: You leave my people alone. It's not good for morale to allow stuff like that."

De Monza smiled. "I think we can work out something along those lines. Now, would you like something to drink?"

* * *

><p>The guard was walking down the corridor, seeming in no hurry. Another guard passed him and asked "Hey, you seen the game yet?"<p>

"Later! I gotta…" he pointed at the bathroom door.

"Alright. See you tonight at the bar, Carl!"

The bathroom was empty. If anyone had been in here, he would have been stunned by what he'd have seen: ‚Carl' started to melt and dissolve into clear water. A few seconds later, the water formed into a young woman with blue hair.

Juvia looked at the sink, then smelled at it. She frowned shook her head. With one hand, she held her nose. The other she put into the sink and let it dissolve into water. Within a few seconds, her entire body was gone down the drain.

* * *

><p>"Put that drink down, Miss Heartfilia! We can't trust Mister De Marco!" Oh my god, am I overdoing it? wondered Erza. Yes, she was overdoing it, wasn't she? Or should she be more outraged? "You are a foul swine!" she said, pointing at the mobster.<p>

"Down, girl." said Lucy, releasing Erza from her misery. "Be quiet now." She turned to De Marco. "Sorry for that. But, maybe she's right. I think we should wait with the toasts until we know what we're talking about and whether we can trust each other."

De Monza nodded. "Well, I guess I'd do the same in your position. And your people are loyal, even if they are a bit over-zealous. Anyway, I assume you want to know what it is we're doing here, right?"

"That's why we came. If you've got some talk full of numbers that you give investors, skip it, we'll do that later. Right now, I want to see it all for myself.

* * *

><p>The young woman looked lost and was probably new. Certainly, Sergio had never seen her here before, but his boss was always bringing in new pretty women, whether they were qualified or not. Not that Sergio minded, of course.<p>

"Hello Darling! Are you lost? Come on, let Sergio show you the way! Where do you need to go?" He thought a bit, then added. "Just not the basement. Bit of a problem there."

The woman seemed grateful for the help. "Oh, thank you, Mister Sergio! Juvia is actually doing an inspection of water pipes in the building. What kind of problem is it that you are having? Is it dangerous?" "It's something with all the science guys down there. Who knows what they're up to. But wait, an inspection? Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Juvia does not know", she said. "But maybe it was because there is no inspection."

Before he could react, a jet of water hit him in the face and left him unconscious.

* * *

><p>The elevator's sign was reading "-4" when it finally stopped. Erza and Lucy stepped outside into a lobby that was nowhere near as massive as the one above. What surprised Erza the most was how it all looked like a country home. She and Lucy both stared out of windows that they knew couldn't acutally be there.<p>

"Ah, yes, our virtual windows. Magic, of course. Apparently it improves the mental state of the patients, or something like that. Now, where is…"

Suddenly, they heard a man shouting loudly in a weird language.

**"…sich wohl über den Ernst der Lage nicht bewusst! Wenn das noch einmal passiert, noch ein einziges mal, dann nehme ich dieses Fieberthermometer hier und ramme es Ihrem Assistenten in die Stirn! Wissen sie, was passiert, wenn ein Mensch plötzlich so ein Fieberthermometer im Gehirn hat! Können Sie sich das vorstellen?"**

Lucy looked at Erza questioningly, but she shook her head. She had no idea what this meant either. De Marco chuckled. "I think I better not translate this, it's not suitable for ladies."

"Is this part of the trouble you mentioned earlier? We also heard something sounding like a shot when we arrived." said Lucy. Meanwhile, the old man continued shouting.

**"Nein, kein Blut, im Gehirn ist keins, aber Schädeltrauma, Gewebeschäden, was weiß ich, fragen Sie einen Neurologen. Wenn er das überlebt, und das wird er nicht, dafür werde ich zu verdammt sauer sein, dann wird er für den Rest seiner Tage nur noch ‚Gildo hat euch lieb' singen!"**

"A bit, but nothing we can't handle. He gets a bit over-excited at times, but he is brilliant. Ah, and here is the man himself! May I introduce: Professor von Harzburg!"

A man walked briskly around the corner. He was dressed in a lab coat with a tie underneath. For some reason, he was holding a clinical thermometer. Following him was a woman, significantly younger, but dressed the same. She looked flustered and could probably understand the man. Following her was yet another, younger man, also in the same outfit. He seemed as lost as Erza and Lucy. The old man continued shouting at the woman.

**"Ist Ihnen das klar! Jedes mal, wenn Sie ein Bild von einem Einhorn sehen, werden Sie sich daran erinnern und sie werden heulen und Ihnen wird schlecht werden! Bei jedem gottverdammten Einhorn!"**

Then, he saw the group, and abruptly became quiet. "Ah, the investors you've told me about, Mister De Monza? Hello, I'm Professor von Harzburg, it is a pleasure to meet you. Let me show you around."

He did not wait for a reply and instead strolled through a door, beckoning for them to follow him. Behind the door was a corridor with glass windows into operating rooms. Some of them were occupied, and a few other people in white lab coats were standing around, making notes.

"This facility is designed to develop new medicine – and new illnesses that you need the medicine for, but right now, we're focusing on something else. This new medicine will, if all goes well, grant the customer eternal life!"

Erza was impressed. "So… you're doing all this in order to life forever?"

"Hm? Me? No, I will certainly not take this pill. A side effect of the active pharmaceutical ingredient is that it will turn you into a hideous, mindless monster over time, with no way to restore you."

Lucy gasped, but the professor continued. "It really does increase the life span in mice, though, so the plan is that we sell these pills, get rich, die old, and only then will people notice the scam. So what we need is a component that delays the…"

He looked through another door, then quickly closed it again. His face was suddenly completely white. "Right… not here… we'll go the other way" he mumbled as he locked the door.

He led them through another corridor into a hall full of beds. There were people in them, all apparently asleep, and all strapped down. Various tubes were going into their arms. "As I was saying, it saves a lot of time and money when one can work with someone like Mister De Monza. All those ethics committees and so on are just roadblocks. But still, we need more testing and later a distribution system, and those things aren't free for us. In particular, personnel with high qualification and low morals, they tend to want a lot of money, and we need to hire more. I don't like more people knowing, but there's only so much you can do before the cloning takes off. So, are you interested?"

He stopped so abruptly that Lucy almost ran into him. Suddenly, they heared a somewhat familiar voice croaking.

"uce… 'sa… eeelp meee…"

It was Gray, in the bed right next to him. The professor looked annoyed. "Oh my, is that one talking again? Miss Medina, please, adjust his dosage."

The woman mumbled "Doctor Medina", but not loud enough for the professor to hear. She nodded towards the man, who rushed to Gray's bed.

Erza saw how Lucy was getting into a fighting pose. She grabbed her arm to calm her down. No matter how much it hurt them to ignore Gray asking for their help, they could not afford to begin the fight right now unless it was really necessary.

The young man turned on some dials, and they could see Gray closing his eyes again.

"We'd… we'd like to see some more of the tests you do" said Lucy, trying hard too sound normal and as if she didn't care.

"Oh? Don't you care about the test subjects here?" asked the professor.

"No, we're just here for the money" said Erza through clenched teeth.

"Allright, that's it, thank you for playing!" said De Monza suddenly. "I'm sorry it took me so long, but I really wanted to savor the irony here, of you standing at your friends bed and saying you don't want to help him. It's so poignant!" He laughed as suddenly a net fell on Erza and Lucy.

"This net looks stupid, but it is made out of highest quality magic rope. Just try to break it. Silly girls, did you really think I would fall for that? Did you really think I would let you get away with and that you would succeed?"

"No, yes and yes" said Erza, to De Monza's surprise. Suddenly, sirens blared.

"It's a fire alarm!" shouted Doctor Medina's assistant. He ran to a box to check something, as all around them footsteps could be heard, trying to leave the building. "There is a pressure loss… something started the fire sprinkler system, but there's no fire reported."

"That can't be!" said Doctor Medina.

"Oh yes, it can!" said Lucy with a grin, as all around them, the fire sprinklers activated, drenching the room in water. The scientists and De Monza turned around and saw how some of the drops combined to create a human form. In less than a second, it had become a young woman with blue hair, wearing a navy blue coat and a blue russian cossack hat. In her hand was a pink umbrella. She started to speak.

"Drip, drip, drop."

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: Originally, I had a very different plan for this chapter. It was just Lucy and Erza talking to the bad guy, then they boarded his private train to the research facility (which was somewhere else entirely), there talked some more until finally… some stuff happened. I guess. It was not done yet (and I hadn't started to write it yet, either).<em>

_But that plan was kind of stupid. It had way too little that actually happened, and focused too much on Lucy. Juvia didn't occur at all, even though showing her cool and creepy again was the entire point of the story. So I decided to go with this somewhat route instead. I'm very interested in what you think!_

_By the way, the delay was not due to the new planning, it is due to university stuff that is taking up a lot of my time right now. I do have a plan for finishing this, but no schedule yet, so if you want, use this temporary end until I finish the real one (in fact, it should work for almost all Fairy Tail stories that aren't finished yet):_

Suddenly, Natsu returned. He shouted "I'm all fired up now!" and began to punch ++bad guy here++. For a while, ++bad guy here++ let it happen, offering only token resistance. But suddenly, he said "Bored now" and swatted Natsu away like a fly. It all seemed bleak and lost, but then Natsu remembered all his friends that he had to protect. He shouted "You are going down, because I am a Fairy Tail wizard!" and proceeded to do lots and lots of fire violence to his opponent. The last thoughts, before it all became black, were "I've never seen such power!". The end.


	6. Chapter 6

„Drip, drip, drop."

The words sent shivers down Lucy's spine. Of course, Lucy had grown to accept Juvia as a friend, even if she was a bit weird, but it still reminded her of their first encounter. Lucy had met plenty of scary brutes, including the others at Phantom Lord, but Juvia's behavior was always something special.

De Monza was too surprised to notice this. He pressed a button on a remote control to let a second net fall right down on Juvia. She did not even seem to notice as the strands fell right through her body in its liquid form.

To his credit, he didn't seem too surprised at this outcome. What did surprise him was the jet of water that Juvia sent from her hands. De Monza jumped behind Gray's bed to evade it.

Professor von Harzburg used that moment to run to Juvia and inexplicably push his thermometer right into her forehead. He was only barely surprised to find that it offered no resistance whatsoever. Juvia rolled her eyes at this.

„Lucy, Erza, Juvia would like to know where you find these idiots." A quick jet of water knocked the professor of his feet. He did not even seem to care, but was instead transfixed by his thermometer.

„Those are interesting readings. Can I do that again!" he shouted. Meanwhile, the other two scientists tried to leave nonchalantly, but a wave closed the doors at either end of the room.

„Juvia will see you brought to justice. You should be grateful; bringing you to justice was not her first idea." she solemnly announced. From the looks on their faces, the scientists believed every word of it.

Suddenly, De Monza appeared again, shouting „Stop!" In his hands was an electric cable, which had probably powered some of the machines here before. It wasn't sparking, as they should in the movies to show that it was live, but Lucy knew that every electric cable was live unless proven otherwise.

„One false move, miss, and your friend here will fry. He's why you came here, isn't he? And don't try anything with water, either, because if you miss, well…"

That was unexpected. Lucy had almost gotten her key out, but could she really dare act now? It seemed that Erza was making similar considerations. Oddly enough, however, Juvia was not. She just looked at Da Monza as if she was annoyed with a naughty school child. Suddenly, and to his apparent surprise, he moved his hand away. Juvia spoke, very slowly and carefully.

„Half of your blood is water. Your muscles are water. Your eyes are full of water. Your brain is full of water. Drip, Drip, Drop."

As she spoke, the cable moved closer to De Monza. His legs twitched, as if he wanted to run but couldn't. Lucy decided that this was the time to act and quickly opened a gate. It was the first time she had tried to do it silently, but it worked without a problem. Neither Juvia nor De Monza noticed.

„It occurs to Juvia that she has not introduced herself. You are speaking to Juvia of the Great Sea. Her body is water. Her mind is one with the water. She controls all water around her. Drip, drip, drop."

She paused, while bringing the cable closer to De Monza's chin. Meanwhile, Cancer was making short work of the net. Normally, Lucy would have been enormously proud that she could get out of a situation where Erza couldn't, but right now, all her thoughts focused on what Juvia might do.

„Juvia is in love with this mean. You have abducted him, strapped him down and filled him with drugs until he couldn't speak anymore. And now you are threatening his life. **You will die.**"

„Juvia, don't!" shouted Erza as Lucy threw out her whip. She was lucky: She managed to catch the cable easily. It was a good thing she had just her normal whip. Right now, she did not want to know whether Juvia had power over the Fleuve d'étoiles.

The water lady sent a look full of hatred at Lucy as she noticed the interruption. It stopped the stellar mage in her tracks, and for a second she wondered if she would be the next target, but then Juvia relaxed.

„Juvia's friends are right, of course. Lucy, Juvia would be very grateful if you could disconnect the cable. Erza, would you mind tying this… person… up?"

Lucy just yanked at her whip, which made the cable come out of the plug. Erza ripped a restraint from an unoccupied bed and bound De Monza's hands behind his back. Meanwhile, Juvia went to work on the restraints that kept Gray tied down.

Erza and Lucy quickly went to work on the other beds, and the whimpering male assistant scientist (who was apparently too scared to give his name) confirmed that yes, there was no harm in just disconnecting them from the machines they were attached to. To Juvia's dismay, however, none of the people woke up quickly. Apparently, that would take another hour or so.

They were almost done when Natsu appeared, apparently sick. Happy was running behind him. Even though Natsu seemed to be in a hurry, he made sure to close the door properly behind him.

„What is so wrong with stairs!" shouted the dragon slayer. „I hate elevators. I'm never getting into one again!"

„Aye!" said Happy. „After the first basement floor, I had to carry him down. He is heavy!"

Erza looked confused. „Wait, so you flew in the elevator? When it goes down, do you have to fly down, too, or does it just happen because the air moves?"

Happy thought intensely for a while. „I don't remember."

„How can you not remember? It was ten minutes ago!"

Lucy shouted: „Forget that! Why are you here so late? Juvia did give the signal, didn't she?"

„Yes", said Natsu. „But we ran into a problem on the way here. One was the elevator and b)"

„Monsters!" screamed Happy. „People who turned to Monsters! Out to eat our brains! And steal our fish!"

„Wait, what?" asked Lucy. „Monsters? What kind of monsters?"

Suddenly, they heard a loud pounding on the door.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

The door buckled with every Bang and finally burst open. Natsu pointed at the grotesque shapes moving towards them.

„That kind of monster."

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: The last chapter was too long for my purposes. I simply don't have the time to finish so many chapters that are this long, and I'd prefer to have a bit more frequent updates. So this is the first part of what was originally planned to become a very long chapter 6. I hope you don't mind!<em>

_By the way: The answer to Erza's question should be fairly obvious, assuming an elevator that has only negligible access to outside air when the door is closed. Notice that it is not static over one elevator ride._


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The creatures had clearly been humans at one point, but they looked as if that had been a long time ago. All of them had weird lumps all over their body. Their clothes were just rags. None of them spoke, but they made weird, growling noises. Erza could make out ten of them, although she believed that this weren't all of them.

At first, the monsters appeared puzzled, regarding the room and its occupants much like one would an abstract piece of art that one just did not understand. Erza thought she could almost hear them thinking, „What is that? I can understand pretty, but this is just random. I've got a friend, his cat could draw better than that. Also, that cat can fly." Wait, where did that last part come from?

„Those are at least ten!" said De Monza. „Professor, you told me it was two. Did you lie to me?"

„Of course not!" replied the professor. „There are two in what seems to be the penultimate stage. After that follows death. Those patients represent the early cases. It was all in my report." With a grin, he added „You did read that, right? No, of course not. You only want to look educated, you don't care about actually learning about all of this."

De Monza shook his head. „Whatever. How many are there now? No, wait, let me guess. You had forty-seven test persons, so I'm guessing it is seventy-four in total, right? When where you planning to tell me?"

The creatures did not seem to care about the discussion and slowly started moving towards the beds. Erza yelled „Hey, stop!", but they didn't even seem to hear it.

„Natsu, you have dealt with them getting here, right? Anything you can tell me?" she asked.

„They can kick and hit and some tried to bite me", the dragon slayer replied. „But they aren't strong, you can just push them away. It's just that there are so many." He thought for a second more, then added, almost as an after-thought: „Oh, and I think they can't feel pain. And you can't hurt them, they heal like super-fast."

„That is to be expected" said the professor suddenly. „Super-fast healing is, after all, the core of this miracle cure."

„Miracle cure for what?" asked Happy.

„For death. Now, I do not appreciate being interrupted by flying cats." said the professor icily. „Anyway, the healing is limited. The drug will fix holes in most organs, but if you cut something off, it can only block the wound, not regrow it. So if you just cut off their heads, we should be fine."

„What!" shouted the Fairy Tail mages almost simultaneously, except for Happy, who shouted „Aye!"

„We do not kill these people!" said Erza. „Maybe they can be cured!" She ignored the scientists shaking their heads. Suddenly, the young man who was apparently Dr. Medina's assistant shouted: „Hey, get away from there!"

The first of the monsters had reached the beds and started sniffing at the patients, when suddenly the young man started hitting them. They seemed surprised, but were clearly not moved by the barrage. Then, one of them bit the man in his arm, and another threw him to the ground. Dr. Medina's face went white, and she shouted „Help him!"

Erza and Natsu did not need any prompting. Between her swords and Natsu's flames, it took them less than a minute to drive them out of the door. They started barricading it with empty beds, while Lucy went to check on the unconscious scientist.

Before the stellar mage could get there, however, she was stopped by Dr. Medina. „Don't touch him! The medicine replicates in the blood stream; he is infected now, too."

„What do you mean by that? Will he turn into one of those monsters, too?"

The doctor nodded. „With bites, it seems to happen faster. He has maybe an hour or two." She mumbled „I'm sorry" at nobody in particular and got out a syringe.

„Is that some sort of antidote?" asked Lucy, but the other woman shook her head. „Not exactly, no. It's poison. This will let him die in peace, before he becomes a monster."

With a speed that surprised even herself, Erza was suddenly restraining the woman, while Natsu took the syringe and burned it. Dr. Medina screamed.

„You don't get it! There is no cure! He will turn into a monster, and he will kill us or turn us into monsters, too. It is more merciful like this!"

„What do you mean, there is no cure?" asked Natsu. He sniffed at the unconscious man. „This smells curable."

„Wait, what?" said Dr. Medina and Lucy at the same time. Erza was similarly baffled.

„Listen, do you have some sort of place where I can do some mixing and where you have different, like, what's it called, chemicals and such?" the dragon slayer asked.

„A… a lab? Yes, there is one down the corridor…" said Dr. Medina, hopelessly confused.

„Okay, you're coming with me! Everybody, I'll get you this cure!" shouted Natsu. He sprinted out the door, dragging the perplexed woman behind him. With an „Aye Sir!", Happy followed them.

Lucy, Erza and Juvia stood still for a second, completely speechless. Even Gray looked shocked, although that might have had something to do with him still being unconscious. Their surprise was interrupted by a loud horn.

„Damn, we need to get out of here!" shouted De Monza. „This is the self destruct. It must have detected that guy being bitten." He pointed at the unconscious scientist.

„Why do you even have a self destruct?" asked Juvia, still holding Gray.

„Precisely for this! My own scientists creating unstoppable monsters! So, let's go, this thing saves work for us." He noticed that nobody was moving. „Oh, don't worry about Medina and that fire guy. She knows what this means, she'll be getting out, too. Hell, we can catch them on the way out. We have half an hour, so it should not be a problem."

„No." said Juvia. „Juvia and her friends will stay here. If there is a cure, then it is our duty to help these people."

„There is no cure! That flame guy there is just nuts! Right, professor?"

The professor seemed to think for a bit. „Well, we have been doing some research into it. It's highly speculative, of course, but maybe…"

„That settles it." said Erza. „Is there a way to deactivate the self destruct?"

„Well, yeah, at the other end of the facility. But you'll never get there. It's all full of monsters, I expect" said De Monza. „And when you're there, the control is bio-signature-locked. Only I and the Prof-guy there can turn it off."

Erza was not fazed by this. „Professor, will you help us?"

The professor shook his head. „I have to agree with that annoying little criminal on this one. It is much safer to just burn everything. I still have the formulas in my head, so maybe one day I'll…"

He stopped as he noticed Erza's sword at his throat.

„Mister von Harzburg, this wasn't an actual question. You are coming with us to stop this thing, whether you want to or not." She looked around at the others. „Juvia, are you…"

„Juvia is staying here. She will protect Gray-sama… and also the others in this room."

„Good…" Erza wondered a bit. There was no way to get Juvia away from Gray now, but she preferred to have two people on her mission, so that one could watch the professor. He was not working for them, after all.

„Lucy, you're coming with us!" Erza said, hoping the stellar mage did not notice her hesitation. Together, the three set out.

* * *

><p>„He is your friend! Do you really leave your friends behind!" shouted Natsu.<p>

„Well, more of an acquaintance, really…" mumbled Medina, but she hoped that the mage did not hear.

„You fight… or do science together, right? You rely on each other, right? You're basically a guild, and you're telling me you want to abandon him!"

„No! If I could save him, I would, really. I just don't think I can…"

„Ah, don't worry" replied Natsu, suddenly with a smile on his face. „We'll get your friend back! Now, I need some things…"

He looked around the room, but Medina could tell that none of the labels meant anything to him.

„You know the complicated things for all this stuff, right?" asked Natsu. She nodded. „Okay, so I want one thing that smells like new car, something like petrichor, and also what Lucy smells like after she gets out of the shower."

The blue flying cat was giggling at the last one, but the dragon slayer didn't care and was sniffing around. He sniffed at the floors, tables, the seat, then her coat, which made her uncomfortable. Then he smelled at her hair, which made her even more comfortable, but she didn't seem to notice. Finally, he brought his face almost directly to her face and looked her in the eyes.

She felt her heart beat loudly as he moved closer, slowly. A part of her wanted to push him away, but another part of her, one that she felt rarely, was working against that. She opened her lips a bit and…

Natsu jumped away, screaming, „I've got it! That scent is in your lip stick. I need whatever is the third-most smelling thing in there."

* * *

><p>„Oh my god, they are so many! What are we going to do? Erza, protect me!" Lucy was panicking, and she did not care who knew. They were facing at least twenty of the monsters now, and had to keep an eye on the professor. Of course, on some level, Lucy had absolute faith that Erza and Natsu would save the day, just like they always did, but right now that was being drowned out by the part of her that kept saying „So many monsters! They eat little Lucys!"<p>

Erza turned around to face Lucy and started speaking, but she barely listened, instead focusing on the monsters that were rapidly approaching.

„…are one of my best friends, Lucy. I love you like a sister", the knight said. Why wasn't she thinking about the monsters? „…want you to know I'm really, really sorry about this."

Wait, her red haired friend was sorry? For what? Was she not able to defeat the monsters? But it were only so few! If not even she could deal with them, then they were all going to —

Lucy's thoughts were momentarily paused as Erza's fist hit her face.

„Owwww!" shouted the stellar mage. „You hit me! Why did you hit me?"

„You were panicking, and I need you to snap out of it. This is a dangerous situation, and I can't use you if you're trying to hide behind me all the time. I am sorry that I hurt you. Please, hit m—"

Surprising both of them, Lucy did actually hit her. Hard. Erza was thrown back for a moment, while Lucy went into shock. „Oh my god, Erza, I didn't mean to, I'm so sorry…"

But something was odd. The knight was actually smiling. „That's the spirit! I know you had it in you!"

„I had it in me to punch you?"

„You had it in you to stand up and do something. Lucy, you are more powerful than you know. You are easily the most powerful stellar mage I have ever met."

„I… I am?"

„Of course. Look at how many keys you have. And your spirits serve you willingly. Most stellar mages I have met spent all their time arguing with their spirits or beating them and ordering them around. You don't have to do that. That makes you really dangerous."

Lucy could not believe what she was hearing. Her? Dangerous? „Erza, you are dangerous. Natsu is dangerous. I am just me."

Erza shook her head. „I've seen you in action. Part of my job is to evaluate who might become an S-class wizard, and I think in a year or two, you could become one as well. Now, Lucy, you take care of these creatures. Don't hurt them too much, we want to cure them after all."

„Aye aye, sir!" said Lucy, filled with new confidence. She, an S-class mage? She couldn't believe it, but if Erza said it was possible, then she would do everything in her power to make it happen. „I've got just the spirit for this job… Aries!"

* * *

><p>For someone else, being cuffed to a radiator in your own secret laboratory would be incredibly humiliating, but it didn't even make the top ten list of Sergio De Monza. In fact, he had some experience paying for things like this, and right now, he would've asked for his money back.<p>

He shouted „I'm bored here!", but the blue-haired girl did not care. She was still fuzzing over the unconscious Gray, even though it was absolutely obvious that he could not hear her.

„Hey, you! Water girl! I'm talking to you!"

„Juvia does not care" came the reply. „It is not in your interest to make her care."

„Oh yeah? What are you gonna do? Hit me? Kill me? Nah. That's the problem with being all water, you just don't have the guts! Hey, what are you rolling your eyes for? That was a good pun, ask anyone!"

„Juvia believes you are incapable of good puns."

„That hurts, lady. I can feel my heart breaking. You know, I was going to offer you a job, but with an attitude like that? Never!"

„Why would Juvia want a job from you?"

„Why not? You're scary competent, you're smart, and you don't seem to mind being bad. I mean, the way you broke in here, that's just cool. And what with you coming from a dark guild and all…"

„Phantom Lord was never a dark guild." What was she doing all the time anyway? As far as he could see, she was simply watching Gray sleep. Oh well. If his only source of entertainment here was to try and make her angry, then he was absolutely willing to take any risks that came with it.

„Sure it was. Not in name, but look at what you did. An entire guild hired to start a war with another guild, just so one man can get his daughter back and marry her off? Yeah, Heartfilia was crazy back then, and I guess he offered a lot of jewels, but at the end, you all still went along with it and had fun. You call that a good guild? Nah. There's darkness in you, Juvia Lockser. And you could use it to make a lot of money."

Finally, she stood up and walked over to him, slowly, quietly. „Do you really want to know how dark I can be?"

He shrugged. „Nothing else to do around here."

* * *

><p>„I told you that was going to explode! And it did explode! For heaven's sake, why don't you ever listen? You could have killed us all!" screamed Dr. Medina.<p>

„Relax", said Natsu. „I ate all of the flames, so what's the danger? Also, it totally worked! Smell that, this is exactly what I need for the next stage."

„Wha… you can't smell that! It's not possible! Your nose is some kind of monster!"

„Don't answer, she's just jealous", said the blue flying cat. If Medina had more time, she would have loved to examine it more closely. The Exceed were a very reclusive bunch, and no scientists had been allowed to do even the simplest of tests on them.

„You're right" answered Natsu to his cat. „Anyway, we need more of that. Is there some sort of catathingy we can use so it doesn't blow up?"

„You want to throw a cat in there!" shouted Happy.

„You can't use a catalyst for this!" screamed Medina. „That'll only make it react worse! …although, come to think of it, maybe…"

She grabbed a bottle from the shelf and handed it to Natsu. He proceeded to open it and, before she could scream „Don't!", put his nose in there. Of course, he fell over immediately. It was all she could do to stop the bottle from falling, too.

Natsu whispered „smells right…" before he fell unconscious. His cat, however, became active. „We need something that burns, really hot!"

„Erm… I've got a bit of thermite over here, but I don't think that this is what you…"

The cat ignored her. He grabbed the bowl of the gritty mixture, lit the fuse… and dumped it all into the dragon slayer's mouth. In shock, she retreated.

„You stupid cat, what did you do that for? You killed him! You killed your owner!"

„Natsu is not my owner. He is my friend!" the cat said, just as the reaction started. Apparently he had no problems with the sparks flying out of his owner's – no, friend's – mouth. And then it became truly weird, as Natsu started to chew.

It took only a few seconds until he was back on his feet. „Thank you, Happy! This fire is awesome, it just keeps going! I'm all fired up now! Hey, Medina, fight me!"

„Wha… what? I don't fight! I'm a scientist! Don't hurt me!"

„Huh? I don't want to hurt you. I just want to fight!"

„Natsu, we don't have time for that" shouted the cat.

„You're right, Happy!" Natsu pulled a white lab coat seemingly out of nowhere. „I'm all fired up now… **for science!**"

* * *

><p>„Lucy, do something!" shouted Erza. As if it were that simple, Lucy thought. They had, of course, expected the professor to turn on them. What they had not expected was that he somehow managed to get control over the nearby mutants, as he called them. They had surprised them and managed to overpower Erza. Lucy was still not sure how they had done that, but the knight was now cuffed to a bed that was standing in the corridor. Between the two, four of the monsters were blocking all ways.<p>

„Can't you requip into something?" Lucy asked

„No, I can't access my magic! He must have blocked it somehow!"

The professor shook his head and screamed „Get out of my way, you silly girl! You can't stop my creatures!" Lucy's heart sank, because deep inside her, she knew that he was right. If they had managed to defeat Erza, then what chance did she have? It seemed as if Erza was able to sense her thoughts, because she said „Don't listen to him, Lucy. I know you can do this. It was your plan that got us here, and it worked fine, remember?"

Lucy was not sure how accurate that assessment was. True, it was mostly her plan, and it did get them to Gray. On the other hand, it also got them into a position where they were being chased by people that had been turned into monsters and were able to take down Erza.

„Don't focus on me, Lucy. You fight differently. You can win this where I don't!" she said, apparently fully aware of what the stellar mage was thinking. Was that an additional and so far unexplained power, like the artificial eye? She decided she needed to test this later, but right now, Erza was right. She had her stellar spirits, surely there was some way to solve the solution. In fact, come to think of it, there was… She smiled as a plan started to form in her head.

„Open, gate of the Scorpion! Scorpio!" she shouted. Aquarius's boyfriend appeared with an enthusiastic „We are!" Lucy whispered a few words in his ear. He nodded, and suddenly the entire room became filled with dust.

„We are! Sand Buster!" the stellar spirit shouted, as a wall of swirling sand hit the creatures. They were dazed for a moment, but quickly got back up again, as if they had never been hit.

„Get him!" shouted the Professor as the sand in the air was slowly dissipating. The monsters started chasing after the stellar spirit. „Yes, yes, send him back where he came from! We will… wahh!"

To his great surprise, he fell over. Looking down, he saw that Lucy had bound his feet with her whip. She was now holding one of the swords that Erza had lost early in the fight and was pointing it right at him.

„You should pay better attention when someone makes it impossible for you to see. I don't have any training with this but I do know ‚stick him with the pointy end'. Want me to show you?"

The professor meekly shook his head. „Good.", said Lucy. „Now, you will send these creatures away, where they can't hurt my friends. Oh, and I need the key to unlock Erza, of course."

„Thank you, Lucy, that was amazing!" said Erza as Lucy unlocked her. Lucy felt herself blush at the compliment. Suddenly, however, the professor started to chuckle.

„You, my red-haired friend, have the heart of a true scientist! Bravo!" he said, while clapping slowly.

„Erza? What is he…?"

„She performed an experiment, with you! You see, I never did stop her magic. She could have done the whole thing on her own, but no, she **let** herself be captured, just to see what you would do. I love it!"

Lucy turned to Erza, intending to roll her eyes, but Erza actually looked ashamed. „Wait, Erza… it isn't true, is it?"

„Sorry." said the Knight. „But I thought you could handle this. If not, I would have broken free and helped you, of course."

„And she did handle it marvelously! Destroyed our only chance of getting out of here alive, of course, but still, this experiment was a total success!" said the professor.

„Wait… so this whole thing was just an experiment?" Lucy felt anger rise inside her. „You never wanted to rely on me. Earlier, you didn't want to take me either, you wanted Juvia. I guess I should have known. I am just not good enough to be in a team with you all…"

„No!" said Erza sternly. „Lucy, I did this to show you how good you really are. Look at it: You defeated these monster and a mad scientist without breaking a sweat! I meant what I said earlier, but you like to hide behind Natsu and me. That way, you will never grow."

Lucy had to chew on that for a bit. It was true; she always expected subconsciously that everything would turn out fine if Natsu or Erza were there. And it usually did, didn't it? But was her dream really just helping them out here and there?

„Are… are you saying that I should leave the team? Because I don't want to! I really love all you guys!" she said, almost starting to sob.

„No!" said Erza. „I don't think our team would work without you. You have the nicest apartment. You are the only one who can stop Natsu when he's out to do something stupid… without hitting him, anyway. And Natsu is good for you, too, he pushes you to act instead of overthinking everything…"

Suddenly, Erza stopped and her eyes went wide. She grabbed Lucy by the shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes.

„Lucy, I just realized something." She paused for a second, before continuing earnestly. „Did you know that you and Natsu would make a really great couple?"

„Kyaaaa!"

* * *

><p>The caged rat looked horrible. It looked also kind of stupid, even more than a normal rat did. Not that the cat seemed to care.<p>

„Can I eat it? I'm so hungry!"

„No, you cannot!" said Natsu. „We made it sick, remember? If you eat it, you will get sick, too. I will get you a nice fish once we are out of here, I promise."

„Oh, how about a mackerel? No, wait, how about a shark! Then I can tell Carla I ate an entire shark!"

„You can't eat a shark! A shark is way bigger than you. You would explode!"

„Aye.", said the blue cat, dejectedly.

Medina cleared her throat. It was a wonder those two ever got anything done. She couldn't fault Natsu's nose, though. She really, really wanted to examine it more closely.

„Oh, yes. Doctor Medina, hand me the mixture!" Natsu said, doing a bad impression of a bad actor playing a bad scientist. She rolled her eyes, but did as he told her. He emptied the small bottle into the cage so the rat could breathe it in.

„When should we see the effects?" whispered Medina. She wasn't quite sure why; noise was not a factor in the procedure.

„Wait a bit…" he replied. Suddenly, the rat started to change. The lumps on its back were getting smaller. After a few seconds, they were gone entirely, and the rat began to act more lively, too. It saw Happy and began to hiss.

„It did not work! It's hissing at me! Natsu, protect me from the monster rat!" the cat shouted.

„Don't be stupid!" shouted Natsu. „It's a rat. They are supposed to hate cats! It hissed at you just like that before we gave it the medicine, and then it didn't when it was a monster."

„Oh… so that means…" said the flying cat, as it dawned on him, and he began to smile.

„Exactly. We did it!" The dragon slayer grinned wide as he and his cat high-fived. „Come on, Doctor Medina! All your science friends will be jealous now when they hear that you got to work with the great Natsu Dragneel!"

She rolled his eyes. The boy was horribly arrogant and annoying. He had endangered their lives at least nine times since they entered the lab. She walked closer to him. It was just… it was just… Without thinking, she suddenly kissed him.

* * *

><p>It always confused people that Juvia could sweat. They would always go on about her having built-in cooling, loosing mass or similar, but none of it made any sense if you really thought about it. Water body or not, she was perfectly human. And keeping all those mutants out was really hard work.<p>

„You look like you could use a drink" said De Monza, still secured. „Why don't you make yourself one? Seems easy enough. Plus, I could use some as well."

Juvia was done answering his comments. Over the past forty-five minutes, he had asked and insulted her about every tiny thing, including her history (as far as it was publicly known), her tendency to say „Drip, Drip Drop" or her nose size, first because it was too small, then because it was too big, with no apparent reason for the change. This particular question he had asked three times, and she had simply given up explaining to him what elemental creation magic could do and what not.

Instead, she went back to check on Gray-sama. He was still lying in his bed, taking forever to wake up. Given that he had spoken to them just minutes before passing away, Juvia was getting more and more worried whether the sedative had any side-effects. On the other hand, his breathing was still stable, and the scientists had told them that it would take this long.

„Does he love you back?" asked De Monza suddenly. She tried to ignore it, but she felt herself getting hot, and apparently he saw her reaction, too.

„Oh, he doesn't. Isn't that cute? Does he even know that you love him? No, wait. I figured it out in five minutes and I haven't met either of you before; clearly he is either an idiot or he doesn't love you back. I love it when things like that happen; so much drama!"

„Shut… up…" Juvia growled, her self-restraint all but gone.

„Seems like I hit a nerve there, didn't I?" De Monza laughed. „Come on, you thought it too. If it isn't you, then I wonder who else… Maybe Lucy or Titania? They both seemed really concerned about his health, too…"

She took a deep breath. This was ridiculous, of course. While Juvia had always had certain fears about Lucy, at the end of the day, Lucy was working with Gray almost all the time and nothing had ever happened. As for Erza, it was either Siegrain, Jellal or Mystogan (Juvia was always confused about all of this).

„Face it, Miss Lockser: You are just pathetic and weak. When I first met you, I was all like ‚Cool, she can manipulate water and she's creepy and she's all like Drip, Drip, Drop and what's up with that?', but now… you're always fuzzing over one guy who does not love you back, it's just sad. Why do you do that? Does that really make you happy?"

She just couldn't help it. To De Monza's horror, she began to laugh. It took her a while to stop, before she could finally say, „Yes."

„Yes? What do you mean ‚yes'? You think it is great to degenerate from an unstoppable badass to crazy girl who can't talk right and wants nothing more than to be someone else's pet?"

Juvia shook her head, still smiling. „You would not understand. Juvia is scary when she's scared or upset. It is how she… it's how I cope. All rain all the time does not help one make friends. I can hide behind scary, and for a while, at Phantom Lord, people accepted that… it was almost like being happy, but not quite. Do you know that feeling, Mister De Monza? Of being lonely and hiding it by being scary?"

From the look of his face, it seemed that she had hit him, so she just continued.

„Maybe I am crazy when it comes to Gray-sama. Maybe I still have some self-image issues that lead me to speaking of Juvia instead of ‚I'. But I am happier than I've ever been, and I am happier than you."

„Well that is harsh."

„Oh no, I didn't mean…"

„Yeah, I know, ‚you can be as happy as I am today if you just call this number'. Look, doll, this is all very touching, but in the end I just asked this question to distract you."

Juvia turned around to find herself face-to-face with at least ten burly men, all armed with swords. Before she could do anything, one of them rammed a syringe into her arm.

* * *

><p>Lucy had expected something huge and important, with glowing lights, red buttons and so on. Instead, the mechanism to shut down the self-destruct was just a button with a lacrima built in, hanging loosely on some wires. She felt disappointed.<p>

„Let the record show that I am against this and that in my professional opinion, you are condemning us all to a gruesome, slow death", said the professor, but you could tell his heart wasn't into it. He seemed resigned to go along with whatever plan Fairy Tail had come up with now.

„I will mention your objection in my report to the council" said Erza drily and pointed her sword at him. „Now press the button!"

The professor grumbled, but complied. A siren sounded to acknowledge his action. „There. Happy now?"

Lucy felt a huge weight fall from her shoulders. All they had to do now was rely on Natsu. Yes, she was not sure how much she could really trust his chemistry, but on some basic level, relying on Natsu always made her feel safe. Her train of thought was interrupted by a familiar voice screaming.

„Lucy! Help! Hide me from that crazy woman!" Natsu shouted as he ran towards them. Happy was with him, and Doctor Medina shortly behind, carrying a bottle of something. Before Lucy knew what was going on, the dragon slayer cowered behind her.

„Natsu! What… what happened?"

„She just, she grabbed me, and then she kissed me! Ewww!"

„It was horrible," said Happy solemnly. „With tongue and all."

Lucy had absolutely no idea how to react to this. Erza seemed similarly confused, but fell back to her default behavior. „Stop right there, evildoer!" She pointed her sword at Medina's throat, making the woman go „eep!".

„Why would you dare to do such a thing?"

„Well, er… look, I misjudged something and I'm sorry, but the important part is, we have the cure! It works!"

„Really? That is… amazing!" said Erza. „And Natsu did that?"

„Hey, stop acting so surprised!" complained Natsu. „As if this was the first time I did something like this."

„It is the first time you did something like this" said Lucy. „At least the first time I've seen or heard of you doing it." She paused to think. „By the way, back when we were fighting Oracion Seis, remember when Erza got poisoned? Why didn't you just create a cure for her then?"

„Huh?" replied Natsu. „That was totally different! Seriously, why do you all even have a nose if you never use it?"

She decided to abandon this line of inquiry. „So how do we use this medicine? Do we have to feed it to them?"

Natsu shook his head. „No, we just need to mix it with water and sprinkle it on all of them. I thought the water girl could help us here. What was her name again? Julia?"

„You don't remember! It was not Julia!"

„Hm… Movia?"

„That's a kind of train."

„Gruvia?"

„I'm not sure if that counts as close…"

„I hate to interrupt this fascinating conversation" said the professor suddenly, „but I would suggest you surrender now. Mister De Monza's reinforcements have arrived."

He held up a communication lacrima. „It seems that they already managed to knock out… damn you, I knew the name until you started arguing about it! The water woman!"

Lucy felt shocked. Juvia was down? How was that even possible? Meanwhile, Erza and Natsu got angry.

„Listen, professor-guy, you don't know me yet…" said Natsu.

„Actually, I've heard some very interesting stories about you and Miss… aaargh!" If Lucy really needed to kick someone in the shin, they would stay kicked in the shin. Actually, she was going to rephrase this slogan one day.

„…but when you tell any of us that one of our friends has been defeated, we don't surrender. We go help them, because we are mages from Fairy Tail!"

Erza and Lucy both nodded. Lucy could see that the Medina woman seemed very uncertain about what to do.

„Look, these thugs that De Monza hires are really scary. Are you sure you can do that? Because if not, then I expect they'll kill all of you… and me, too, if I help you instead of the professor."

The professor nodded. „Damn straight. Great you found the cure, by the way, but pointless. They'll just kill all the mutants, so it does not make any sense to try that now."

She stood there with open eyes, trying to process this information. „All of them? Including the old and the weak and those who just got bitten? Even though we know we could help them?"

„Come with us." said Erza. „You care for your friend, that is good enough for us."

Slowly, Medina nodded. „Good", said Erza. „Also, I really meant it when I said ‚why would you do such a thing?'. I'll need a full report."

* * *

><p>„Should we start eliminating the threats in this room?" asked the leader of De Monza's security team.<p>

„No, Arnold, not yet." De Monza asked himself why he kept calling him Arnold. The guy's name wasn't Arnold. He didn't even know any Arnold. But somehow, the name just fit. „We don't want the Fairy Tail people to have a reason to attack us even harder, do we? And we need to stay in this room so that we have the advantage."

„As you wish, sir. Do you need any survivors?"

He just loved the guy. Wasn't he great? No beating around the bush, just a quick question how many people he wanted dead. De Monza made a mental note to ask the professor for clones later on.

„Only our scientists, if possible. Other than that, the earlier they die, the better. You know, I was thinking of keeping Lucy for myself, but that kind of stuff only leads to trouble."

„Yes, sir."

Suddenly, he heard a small, child-like voice shout. „The correct term is ‚Aye, sir!'"

„Cool, they're here. Arnold, you know what you have to do!"

Without another word, Arnold and his men got unsheathed their swords and started to move towards the Fairy Tail team that had just arrived. They had set up a perfect ambush, with people hidden behind the door, ready to flank them and cut off their retreat. It lasted almost half a minute.

Before they could even begin to swing their swords, other, magic swords had started to appear in front of them and began to block their every move. De Monza had heard about Titania's capabilities, of course, but was she really this good in real life?

Meanwhile, the others began their work. Natsu was punching the guys with fire, while Lucy had shouted something about a gate while holding a key and now looked on smugly as a guy with scissors for hands started cutting up the swords.

Suddenly, Arnold, who was fighting right next to De Monza, fell over, as a huge jet of water hit him in the back. He looked around to see Juvia looking at him.

„But… how are you still…?"

„Juvia diluted the poison, then pretended to be unconscious. Juvia would like you to know that homeopathy does not work."

Before he was even finished thinking, De Monza picked up Arnold's sword (boy, that thing was heavy) and took a wild swing at Juvia. Only to find that the sword got stuck in an ice wall. Had that always been there? He was sure he'd have noticed something like that.

„Gray-sama!" Juvia said. Indeed, Gray was standing next to her, fully awake again. „Thank you for your help, but should you not still be in bed?" Juvia asked.

„He was trying to kill you. I had to stop him!"

„Oh, Gray-sama! …but you do remember that Juvia has a water body and would not have been hurt, right?"

„Eeh…" Gray smiled uneasily and blushed. De Monza wondered whether he needed to rethink his assessment of their relationship… but then, it did not matter, really, did it? After all, he was being currently being cuffed with handcuffs that Lucy seemed to have gotten from the spirit world.

* * *

><p>The rest of the mission was fairly simple. Natsu's plan to have Juvia spray the medicine everywhere worked, to the surprise of everyone except Natsu. The guards came to arrest De Monza and most of his operation, something they had apparently wanted to do for a long time, but never had a good enough reason for. They also handled all the other abducted victims. All that was left for the Fairy Tail people was to return home.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Author's note: Wow, this one took forever, because I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do here. I'm still not fully certain that it's a good chapter, but I hope you like the individual scenes. After this, there will be a short epilogue, so see you there. And, of course, please write reviews!<em>

_Dear children reading this: Do not ever do chemistry the way Natsu does!_


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